The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-04-14
BILL NYE
Gives His Version Of the Story Of Char
lotte Corday.

/
lotte Corday.
! A constant reader Of The Globe has writ
ten to know something OF Charlotte Corday,
and as the letter has been referred TO me,
| take great pleasure in stating briefly, and
| in glowing terms, what l am able to recall
| of this eccentric young woman life.
Charlotte Corday was born on foreign
strand. now known as Normandy, named In
honor Of the large speckled gray horses
with thick. piano legs and gross necks, that
come from there to engage in hauling beer
wagons in the land of the free and the home
of the brave.
Here Charlotte was born in the year 1893.
| Like the record of Mr.. Spartacus, who, in
speaking of his own experience, said that his
early life ran quiet as the clear brook by
which he sported, the childhood of Char
| lotte Corday was almost devoid of interest,
| being monotonous and unanimous, as self
| made man said to me not long since, refer
rig to the climate of the south.
She early turned her attention, however,
| to the matter of patriotism, hoping to OBJ
tain a livelihood in the patriot line some
day. She investigated the grievances OF
| France, and gave her attention almost ex-
| clusively to the invention of some way by
which to redress these grievances. Some
| of them had not been redresSed for centu-
ries. and they ought to Rave been ashamed OF
themselves.
According TO all accounts, the grievances
| of France were, at that time, in full dress
| and short sleeves, ready for the ball to
| open.
1t fell to the lot of Charlotte Corday to
| open the ball.
She was beautiful girl, with clear blue
| eyes, placed at equal distances from tall,
| light colored nose, which waS pale when IN
repose, but flushed delicately when she was
| in tears. Her ripe and rudy French mouth
opened and closed readily when she was en-
| gagged in conversation, and her white and
beautiful shoulders, ever and anon, while she
talked, bumped themselves like hired man
on his way to dinner.
| She had. also, tresses of hair of that pecul-
| lar Titan variety which is supposed to go
| with freckles and high temper. The his
| torian saws that her hair looked black as 1t
divided over her fair forehead and hung
back across her shapely head, but at night,
| as it was draped across the richly carved
| frame of the au revoir where the fire light
i or the Norman Hose company could play
| upon it, you would have thought it bright
| and inflammatory red. Charlotte Corday
was tall and graceful, and when her elastic
| step and heroic feet followed the light meas
ure of some gay French tune at an October
| pumpkin peeling, she could dance on for
hours without jarring the glass in the win
dows very much
Her costume was simple and did not cost
| a great deal 1t consisted of Normandy
cap made of cheese cloth in shape like the
tail of a setting hen, and trimmed IN front
with real French lace from the ten cent
counter Her dress was all wool dela1ne
with a pin stripe in it and trimmed with the
| same. Her other dresses were different
Her stockings were tall and slender as seen
| hanging on the woman clothes line at Caen,
but her heart was gay and happy as the day
| was long.
Charlotte Corday was one of large
| family whose descendants were called Cor
| duroy. They were the instigators of style
| of road that has done more to shorten the
spinal column and jolt the jejunum into
chaos than any other line of inventions
throughout the United States.
Charlotte Corday had a voice which &C
companied her in all her rambles, and it is
said that it was very musical and sounded
| first rate.
Her parents were poor, so she had very
| by the careful student who reads her MSS.
to-day and notices where she has frequently
spelled cabbage with a k She spoke French
| fuently, but was familiar with no other for
| eign tongue whatever.
She took great interest in politics, but
| did not indorse the administration. She
felt more especially bitter toward a gentle
man named Marat, who was rather literary
in his habits and who also acted as a kind
of chairman of the National Central COM
mittee. To his other work he had also adj
| ded the tedious and exhausting task of pick
ing out people and indorsing them as suita-
BILE persons to be beheaded. Being jour-
naliSt he had to write hard all the evening
to get the hook full of red hot political edi-
torial copy, and then when he should have
gone to bed and to rest, he had to take the
| directory and pick out enough people for a
mess the following day.
In this way Marat was kept very busy,
with the foreman on his heels all day and
the guillotine on his heels all night, and
every man was afraid to see the deputy
sheriff coming, for fear he had a subpoena
for him. 1t was no unusual thing in those
days for a Frenchman to turn off the gas
and go to bed, only to find his shirt collar
all bloody where the guillotine had banged
his hair just above his Adams apple in the
morning.
Those were indeed squirming times, as NJ.
de Lamartine, humorous writer of France,
has so truly said. No man felt perfectly
safe when he saw Marat at sociable or a
caucus. 1t was impossible to tell whether
he had come to write the thing up for his
paper or pick out some more people to be
killed by the administration They got SO
that Marat could induce any of them to sub
scribe for his paper, and people advertised
in his columns for things they did not want
in order to show that they felt perfectly
friendly toward him.
It was at this time that Charlotte Corday
called one morning at the apartments of
Mr.. Marat with view to asSassinating him.
She sent in wor1 that q young lady from
Caen desired TO see Mr.. Marat for the pur-
pose of paying her subscription. She was
told that the editor was taking a bath. She
laughed a cold, incredulous laugh, for she
had seen q great many French Journalists,
and when one of them sent word to her that
he was bathing she could i'll represS low,
gurgling laugh.
Finally she was admitted to his private
apartments, where he was indeed in the
bath with an old table cloth thrown over
him, engaged in writing scathing criticism
on the custom Of summer following old
buckwheat lands and sowing Swedish fur
nips on them in July, when the country
was so crowded f or cemetery room.
Charlotte apologized for disturbing the
great Journalist at such time, and remark
ing that we were having rather backward
spring produced a short stab knife with
which she cut Large overcoat button hole
In the able journ alist's thorax.